Adams Family Correspondence, volume 14
th1800
I received Your kind Letter by mr Peabody and thank
You most Sincerely for it;1 I did not know that You had been so very sick untill I saw a Letter
from You to mrs Foster: You my Dear sister certainly take too great a
charge upon you; I know that You delight in doing good, and
communicating, that as our good Father used to Say, he had rather be
worn out, than rust out; but your constitution is so feeble that You
should Spair it, as much as possible. Your Life is too precious to Your
Family and Friends, for you to be any way lavish even in well doing; I
think it is your Duty to take some relaxation and change of Air &
scenes will tend to invigorate you, and give a new Spring to your
spirits. a Cheerfull Heart does good like a Medicine; your Spirits have
supported carried your feeble
frame through many a trying scene aided by the best supporter, and the
only Sure and stable prop upon which We can rely with security.
“Religion bears our spirits up” whilst we trust that the Supreem Ruler
of the Universe knows what is best for his creatures—2 I have had a very Sick turn. a
302 fever confined me to My Bed for
Several Days—just before the Presidents return. he found me confined to
My Chamber, but thanks to a kind Providence, I am restored again. Mrs
Norten is better than I feared She ever would be again. She is a mere shadow. her
Situation is a very precarious one; a very little matter would turn the
balance against her— She is returnd to her Family Sister Cranch has the
two Youngest Children Still with her, and mr & mrs Greenleaf &
her two Children are with her now; Mrs Smith returnd with the President,
and was very happy last night to see her two Sons, who are grown fine
Boys—
Your son has made the tour to Washington with the President. he would have immediatly visited you upon his return, but hoped You would have come at Commencment, but when I found how large a Family You have, I did not wonder that you could not both be absent at once I think You had better resolve to come when the Children return which will be in about a fortnight.—
You kindly inquire after my Family. I had a Letter
from Berlin about a fortnight since. it was an old Date 18 Febry— it however informd me of a new
misfortune to which mrs Adams had again been subject. Her Health had
been much mended by her excursion to Dresden the last Year—and she was
some way advanced in her Pregnancy: attending one of the Assemblies at
Court, the Lady of the Spanish Minister who had recently arrived, was
standing by her, when the Lady in turning round caught her foot in the
carpet, fell & broke her Leg short of, the agitation & hurry of
Spirits this accident occasiond, and the assistance which Mrs Adams
endeavourd to render her; through her into a fainting fit; and She was
carried home when a renewal of the Misfortune to which She had three
times before been subject, took place and left her again upon the verge
of Dissolution when he wrote, two Months had elapsed, and she was but
slowly recovering
Thomas is in Philadelphia where I hope he will succeed in buisness. he is good amiable and virtuous, a comfort to his Parents. God grant him Life and Health;
I will send the Linnen you request by William—and will write by him
adieu my Dear sister / affectionatly Your
The President desires to be affectionatly rememberd to you. Mrs smith will write to you— Louissa sends duty. Remember me to Miss Palmer—
RC (DLC:Shaw Family Papers); addressed: “Mrs
Elizabeth Peabody / Atkinson”; endorsed: “July 18th: 1800.”
Peabody wrote a letter to AA on 14 July (Adams Papers), in which she said she had suffered from fever and a sprained ankle and reported on the clothing needs of William Steuben and John Adams Smith. The letter was in reply to one from AA of 22 June, in which AA noted having returned to Quincy with Susanna Boylston Adams and her anticipation of a visit from AA2. She also commented on the poor health of Elizabeth Cranch Norton and invited Peabody to visit (DLC:Shaw Family Papers).
Isaac Watts, Hymns and
Spiritual Songs in Three Books, Book I, Hymn 132, line 13.
th.July 1800.
I had the pleasure to receive your favor of the 12th:, this morning, enclosing a letter from my
brother, for the perusal of which I thank you. It is a very long time, since
I had any intelligence concerning him, and I feel anxious lest some of his
letters or mine should have miscarried on the route. W. Shaw informs me, in
his letter of the 11th: that the State
Department has letters dated in April from Berlin.1
The repeated mistakes of Madam, are unfortunate, no doubt, but all that can be said on such occasions, is——— ————they must try again.
I have no doubt but your information respecting the
manoeuvres of the little Cock sparrow Genl: is
correct. The same game is attempting here, as I collected yesterday from a
conversation with Mr: Boudinot, who says if
Jefferson gets in, it will be the federalists who put him there; that they
are going all wrong in attempting to divide the interest & he is afraid it will end in the triumph of the
Jacobins— Mr: Horace Stockton, the District
Atty for New Jersey, was present &
talked a different language.2
He did not despair of the Election— He could answer for N Jersey’s doing
right when it came to the teste, and from information he had received, he
should not be surprized if a very considerable number of votes were given
for Mr: Adams in Virginia.
The disbanding of the Army, was a good thing, if the only
advantage secured by it, should be the dismissal of the Genl:— He knows very well, that the President had
no confidence in him, and had lately fallen out with two of his best friends
& most assiduous consulters. His enmity is
declared, and it may have its weight in the Scale of Election, but not much,
in New England— The Carolinas will be most easily affected.
I perceive great Electioneering zeal in the Boston
Newspapers, and have noticed the pieces to which you allude— I see so much
mischief done by writing falsehood & so little good, by writing truth
and vindicating character, that I hardly think I shall draw the pen in the
present contest. I do not scruple to declare, that I think the present
Constitution & laws of this Country, so inadequate to the purpose of
Government, that I am ashamed to appear as a writer in support of it. What
is there in such a Government to attach people to it—to create & sustain
a wish for its duration— There is in my mind, nothing but the fear of something worse. Does it hold up
any thing to gratify any of the predominant passions of the human heart? Has
it any adequate reward for those who embark in its service? Does it afford
that protection to property or reputation, which those who submit to it have
a right to expect? I might go on with questions to the end of my paper and
not be able to give an affirmative answer— I believe, that the people of
this Country have but little affection for this Government of their own
choice, and yet, it has lasted a considerable time by the help of an
artificial enthusiasm & a virtuous and wise administration of it. But we
are getting unsettled in our opinions, wild in our theories and the next
change, from present appearances, will be for the worse—
It seems to me, that no body cares for the
Constitution;—the framers of it, are apparently, in many instances,
disgusted with it— And all its original enemies—The Livingstons—the
Clintons—Burr’s and all the Virginia tribe as also the small folks here & in other parts of the Union, when
they carry the day, will assuredly try to set up something else— Things must
take their course— But the Old cat, is watching
with all her eyes, to seize on a favorable moment of disorder &
confusion among the young litter, to make another effort to regain, what the
old rats some years since stole away from her—3
When a foreign Minister leaves a Country Europe Country without any
assignable cause—when Commissioners under a treaty take leave, without
finishing the objects of their mission—when the hired printer even, departs
suddenly—All these things coming thick upon each other, would in any Court
of Europe, indicate determined hostility— What it they means in the case before us—I know not, nor do I much care. If the sons are worthy of
their Sires, the Lyon will not be able to devour us all.
I have the best Compt: of
Mrs: Bradford, Mr: & Mrs: Boudinot & Mr & Mrs Breck to
tender you, by their desire— I drank tea last evening at the Country seat of
Mr: Boudinot, where I saw them all—4
I hope your health may be quite restored— Mine is tolerably good, though the excessive heat melts me away very fast.
The factor, Capt Kemp—brings late news from Europe, but none very consequential—5
Mr: C Carroll was married the
night before last, by his Uncle, the Bishop, to the pretty Miss Ht. Chew— There’s one more of the five & thirty daughters, well provided
for.6
With best love to all, I am, dear Mother / your affectionate & dutiful / Son
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “Mrs: A Adams. / Quincy”; internal address:
“Mrs: A Adams.”; endorsed: “T B Adams 19
July / 1800.”
William Smith Shaw’s 11 July letter has not been found. JQA wrote to Timothy Pickering on 7 April, discussing French diplomatic overtures to Britain and Austria; two copies of the letter reached the United States (DNA:RG 59, Despatches from United States Ministers to Germany, 1799–1906, Microfilm, Reel 2).
Lucius Horatio Stockton (1768–1835), Princeton 1787,
was an ardent Federalist and a New Jersey lawyer who had served as U.S.
attorney for the District of New Jersey since 1798 (
Princetonians
, 4:237, 239, 243).
See also
TBA to JA, 26 July 1800, and
note 2, below.
The moral of Aesop’s fable “The Cat and the Old Rat” is “Caution is the parent of security.”
Susan Vergereau Boudinot Bradford (1764–1854) was the
widow of former U.S. attorney general William Bradford and the only
daughter of Elias Boudinot and Hannah Stockton Boudinot (1736–1808),
whose country estate, Rose Hill, was about two miles outside
Philadelphia. TBA also conveyed greetings from Philadelphia
merchant Samuel Breck Sr. and Hannah Andrews Breck, for whom see vol.
9:214 (Washington, Papers, Retirement Series
, 1:7;
Philadelphia North American, 1 Dec. 1854;
Washington, Papers, Revolutionary War Series
,
18:564; J. J. Boudinot, ed., The Life, Public
Services, Addresses and Letters of Elias Boudinot, LL.D., 2
vols., Boston, 1896, 2:109).
The ship Factor, Capt.
Kemp, arrived in New York City on 17 July, and the European news it
carried on French military advances and the British commodities market
was printed on 19 July in the Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser and the Philadelphia Gazette of the United States.
Charles Carroll IV of Homewood (1775–1825) and
Harriet Chew (1775–1861) were married by Carroll’s cousin Rev. John
Carroll, bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Baltimore, on 17 July.
The bride was the daughter of Pennsylvania judge Benjamin Chew Sr., who
had eleven living daughters born between 1748 and 1779 (LCA, D&A
, 1:25; Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 18 July 1800;
Baltimore American and Commercial Daily
Advertiser, 6 April 1825;
ANB
;
John W. Jordan, ed., Colonial and Revolutionary
Families of Pennsylvania, 3 vols., N.Y., 1911, 1:512–513).